Sol–Gel Preparation and Characterization of Tin-Doped Dimanganese Trioxide Thin Films

Abstract

This work shows an investigation of tin-doped Mn2O3 thin layers synthesized via sol–gel process and deposited on glass substrates using dip-coating technique. The Sn concentration was changed from 0% to 9%. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Ultraviolet–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) and impedance spectroscopy (IS). XRD showed that Mn2O3 was crystallized in the cubic form with directionally preferential orientation structure (222). The formation of Mn2O3 was also confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. The optical transmittance of the samples is greater than 70% and increases following doping, while the band gap energy decreases with an increase in Sn doping concentration. Complex IS indicates that the resulting circuit is a parallel RpCp where Cp is the capacitance of the layer and Rp its resistance.